Freedom and Slavery

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Introduction

Key points from the first teaching:

Key biblical
truths often seem backward, counter-intuitive, contrary to common
sense—even crazy (e.g., “Christ crucified”).
Sometimes this is because they are stated in paradoxical ways
—but even when they are stated in a straightforward
way they still strike us this way. If biblical teaching has never
struck you this way, you have probably not looked at it very
carefully.

Why is this?
According to the Bible, God’s truth seems “backward”
to us because our own thinking is so backward! Like the Korean War
POW’s, we are deeply brainwashed and are in desperate need of
deprogramming and reprogramming in our perspective on most major
areas of life. This is why we stumble over God’s “backward”
wisdom. This is why we need to immerse ourselves in God’s
Word, asking him to expose our brainwashed thinking and illuminate
our minds.

This morning, we’re going to explore a key piece of this “backward”
wisdom—God’s view of freedom and slavery. This is a vast
subject. We will survey several passages. At first
glance, the teaching of the New Testament on this subject seems
confusing at best and contradictory at worst.

Consider these two
statements by Paul in Gal. 5. In 5:1, Paul asserts that Christ
has set us free—and that we should not be subject again to a
yoke of slavery (douleia). On the other hand, in 5:13 he
calls on us to serve one another as slaves (douleow). “You’re
now free, so don’t submit to slavery—but use your freedom
to serve one another as slaves.”

Or how about the
fact that Jesus says he sets us free (Jn. 8:36)—but that
Paul calls himself Jesus’ slave (Rom. 1:1). Has Peter
gone crazy when he tells us to act as free people, but to use our
freedom as God’s bond-slaves (1 Pet. 2:16)?

Or how about this
statement in 1 Cor. 9:19 (read). If Paul is free from all
people, why on earth does he makes himself a slave to all people?

These are the kinds of questions God wants us to
ask. And to answer them, we must learn how God defines freedom and
slavery and the key relationships between them. I want to survey
this part of God’s “backward” wisdom by exploring
what the New Testament teaches about three key relationships between
freedom and slavery: freedom from slavery, freedom for
slavery, and freedom through slavery. Each has a surprising
twist . . .

Freedom from slavery

When we think
about being free from slavery, we think primarily about emancipation
from human slavery. And so did the 1st century readers of
the New Testament, because one-third of the Roman Empire lived in
slavery.

The Bible affirms
that human slavery is evil—a horrible social manifestation of
human rebellion against God in which people use their power to
oppress and exploit other human beings. It undercuts slavery by
asserting basic human equality because we are all made in God’s
image (contrast to Hindu caste system). This is why the Old
Testament law mandated humane treatment of slaves and their release
for mistreatment and/or after six years. This is why Paul urges
Philemon to release Onesimus from slavery. This is why there is no
human slavery in the future kingdom of God. And this is why the
abolitionist movements in Great Britain and the USA were driven by
Bible-believing Christians.

But (and this is
the first surprise) when the New Testament talks about freedom from
slavery, it is relatively rarely about human slavery. Instead, it
focuses on how Jesus came to free us from more radical and
universal forms of slavery.

Slavery to the
Law: This refers to the bondage of trying to earn God’s
acceptance by keeping his moral laws. This is the way of
religion—including “Christian” religion—but
it is a dead-end. Because God’s Law is moral perfection, it
can only expose your violations and moral debt to God. Like runaway
credit debt, it turns God into an enemy to fear—and there is no
bankruptcy option.

The only
liberation is redemption—God releasing you from this
debt slavery by paying the debt himself. This is exactly what Jesus
came to do (read Gal. 3:13). By living the perfect life that
you owe God, and by voluntarily paying for your violations on the
Cross, you are free forever from God’s judgment—once you
personally receive this gift from him (read Acts 13:38,39)!
This is what Paul was referring to in Gal. 5:1. This is what
transform your relationship with God from slavish fear to security on
his love (Rom. 8:15). Have you admitted your
hopeless debt to God and asked Jesus to redeem you from this slavery?
If not, this is the main point for you tonight . . .

Slavery to Sin:
Read Jn. 8:34. In this conversation with the Jews, they are
offended because he says they need to be freed. They are offended
because they are focused on a superficial form of slavery (human
slavery). But Jesus is talking about the root slavery (to sin).

Our society calls
these “addictions.” We think we have the power to use
things and people for our own ends—but somehow they wind up
using, corrupting, and enslaving us. We use alcohol and drugs to
liberate our moods—but they wind up enslaving us. We use
romance and sex for intimacy—but we wind up more alienated and
fragmented than ever. We use hobbies and shopping to handle
stress—but they wind up creating more stress. Some us are more
aware of our addictions than others, some of have more socially
acceptable addictions than others—but all of us have them.

Jesus came to free
you from this form of slavery as well (read Jn. 8:36). Many of
us here have been delivered by Jesus from addictions that were
destroying us!

Slavery to
Other People: This refers to the bondage of living under the
false judgments of other people. Through Jesus, you can be freed
from the bondage of pleasing people to get their acceptance
(1 Cor. 4:2-4), submission to unbiblical religious
restrictions (Col. 2:18,20,21), and inferiority based on racial,
gender, educational, or socio-economic differences (Gal. 3:28).
When you receive Jesus, God gives you a new dignity as his beloved
son/daughter—and the more you live in the light of this new
identity, the freer you can become from this form of bondage.

We’ll talk more later on about how God frees
us from these last two forms of slavery—but first we need to
understand another key relationship (Surprise #2). God not only
frees us from slavery to the Law; he also frees us for
slavery to himself . . .

Freedom for slavery

God set the nation
of Israel free from slavery to Pharaoh by raising up Moses to deliver
them. Through the Exodus, God proved that he was loving and good as
well as righteous and mighty. And having freed them from slavery to
Pharaoh, he called them to freely become his slaves (Lev. 25:55).
This choice was the key to their enjoyment of the political freedom
he was giving them.

In the same way,
when you receive Christ God sets you free forever from slavery to the
Law. Through the Cross, God proved his love and mercy (as well as
his wisdom and power) in a far greater way
than he did through Moses and the Exodus. And having freed you from
slavery to the Law, he now calls on you to freely become his slave (2
Cor. 5:14). God doesn’t require you to do this to be forgiven,
but it’s the key to your enjoyment of freedom from Law.

In the Old
Testament law there is another beautiful picture of this freedom for
slavery—the beauty of the bond-slave. If a Hebrew became a
human slave, God commanded that after six years his master had to set
him free. But if he loved his master because he had proved himself
to be kind and just and good, he could willingly pledge
himself forever (Deut. 15:16,17). The piercing of his ear
marked him as a bond-slave.

David uses this
same picture in one of his predictions of the Messiah
(read Ps. 40:6-8). Because of his trust in God’s
love and wisdom and goodness, he would come as God’s bond-slave
to do his will—even to the point of laying down his life for
us.

Likewise, Paul’s
favorite way to identify himself was not “Benjamite,” or
“Graduate of Gamaliel University,” or even “Apostle
of Jesus”—but as Jesus’ “bond-slave”
(Rom. 1:1). He deserved God’s judgment because of his
persecution of Messiah’s people—yet Jesus forgave him and
called him to a privileged role in his service! In response, Paul
freely gave himself to Jesus as his slave. In a world where “slave”
was a hated word, Paul gloried in calling himself Jesus’ slave
as a way of communicating how good and worthy Jesus was.

Our translations
tone this down from “slave” to servant. Joseph Tson
notes the significance of this: “In
(21st) century Christianity we have replaced the
expression ‘total surrender’ with the word ‘commitment,’
and ‘slave’ with ‘servant.’ But there is an
important difference. A servant gives service to someone, but a
slave belongs to someone. We commit ourselves to do something, but
when we surrender ourselves to someone, we give ourselves up.”1

What about you? Do you realize that Jesus freed
you from slavery to the Law so that you can freely become his slave
(1 Pet. 2:16)? Do you know that the best way to thank him
for his mercy through Jesus is to give your whole life (BODY, MIND,
MONEY, POSSESSIONS, RELATIONSHIPS, PLANS, TALENTS, TIME, etc.) to
him? Are you still trying to use Jesus to advance your own agenda—or
have you abandoned your agenda/life to him? For some of you, this is
the main point tonight . . .

Freedom through slavery

Now we’re ready to appreciate the third New
Testament relationship between slavery and freedom. God frees us
from slavery to the Law, God frees us for slavery to
himself—and God frees us through slavery to
himself. This is the third surprise . . .

How can slavery to
Jesus set us free? This sounds “backward” because our
definition of freedom is faulty. We define freedom negatively—as
the absence of all restraints.2
But God defines freedom as the ability to live according to live as
he designed you to live.

What if you were
swimming underwater and ran into a talking fish—and he
complained that he longed to be free from the water? Because he was
designed to live in water, to leave the water would bring slavery to
death, not freedom. He may think he is confined by the water, but in
truth he is free only in the “restriction” of water.

God designed us,
not for unrestrained self-indulgence, but to love him and other
people (Matt. 22:36-40). Therefore, we are truly free only
when we abandon ourselves to this design.

This is why the
more selfish freedom you seek, the more enslaved to sin you become.
The tragic irony is that our generation has experienced more of this
kind of freedom than any other (SOCIAL; MONETARY; GEOGRAPHICAL;
SEXUAL; etc.)—and yet it has produced more destructive
addictions than any other generation!

But the more you
serve God and other people, the more true freedom you experience.
This is why Paul said Gal. 5:13,15 (read). When we use our
freedom from the Law to serve ourselves, we destroy ourselves. But
when we use it to serve others in love, we become truly free.

If you understand
this, you will also understand why some Christians talk so excitedly
about being “used by God.” We actually ask God to “use
us” and we talk about how cool it is to be “used by God.”

Believe me, I know
why that sounds so weird! It’s because being used by anyone
else is a total drag. But because God made you for
himself, and because he loves you and wants your good more than
anyone else—being used by God (to serve others) is the most
freeing and wonderful experience you can have!

If you understand
this, you will also understand that the only way to get freed from
slavery to sin is by replacing it with a lifestyle of serving God and
other people. You can’t overcome true addictions by just
stopping the destructive habit—you’ll either fail or
substitute another destructive addiction. You have to replace it
with the life of loving service for which God designed you.

I’d like to
tell you that I overcame my drug-use habit by educating myself and
then just stopping. The truth is that I knew what it was doing to
me, I had vowed to myself that I would quit the day I knew it wasn’t
helping me, etc.—but I couldn’t quit. I got freed from
drugs after I found Christ and began to get a taste of sharing God’s
Word with others. That was such an exciting experience that in
pursuing it I found progressive freedom from drugs.

This is why if
you’re a porn addict, you won’t get truly free without
pursuing deep love relationships with others. That’s why if
you’re a shopaholic, you won’t get truly free without
embracing a life of serving other people for Jesus’ sake.
That’s why if you’re enslaved to pleasing other people
because you fear their rejection, you won’t get truly free
until you live to please God and righteously serve those very people.